It is a well known convention to provide audio and/or video electronic apparatus, such as television receivers and video tape recorders, with respective remote control transmitters that are separate and apart from the actual apparatus and can be manipulated by the user for emitting infrared or other signals by which the respective television receiver or video tape recorder may have its operations remotely controlled. In general, the various manufacturers of the electronic devices mentioned above each employ different remote control codes for remotely controlling the respective electronic device which they manufacturer.
As used in this description and in the appended claims, the words "remote control translator," "remote control device," "remote controller," "remote", and "remote control" all refer to a device with can remotely control the various functions of an electronic device such as a TV, VCR, laser disc player or other audio visual device.
Previously, a remote control transmitter that was provided with an electronic device, such as a TV or VCR, would only be able to remotely control that particular electronic device. More modernly, however, remote control transmitters that are provided with a particular electronic device have been designed to remotely control not only that particular electronic device, but also other peripheral devices produced by the same manufacturer. For example, a remote controller supplied with a TV manufactured by Company A very often is designed to remotely control not only the TV, but also a VCR manufactured by Company A. However, because each manufacturer uses different remote control codes to remotely control their respective electronic devices, the remote controller manufactured by Company A in the example above would not be able to remotely control a VCR manufactured by Company B. This is because the VCR manufactured by Company B uses a different control code than the VCR manufactured by Company A.
One problem associated with the manufacturers remote control transmitter is that they are often very complex and may be difficult for the user to operate. Often the keys corresponding to desirable remote control functions such as VOLUME UP/DOWN or CHANNEL UP/DOWN are not laid out conveniently for the user and are difficult to locate. Unfortunately, the user in possession of a poorly designed manufacturer's remote control device can do nothing to alter the layout of the keys, and must therefore learn to adapt to the layout as designed by the manufacturer.
In recent years, some manufacturers have become aware of the problems associated with a complex remote control device. To resolve this problem, a number of manufacturers now include two remote control devices for remotely controlling a particular electronic device, such as a TV or VCR, purchased by a consumer. The first remote control device is the standard complex remote controller discussed above. The other remote control device is smaller in size and less complicated, containing only a limited number of keys to correspond to the essential functions of the electronic device such as POWER ON/OFF, VOLUME UP/DOWN, and CHANNEL UP/DOWN. The small remote control device is easier to operate by the user since it has a limited number of keys (about 4 or 5) to remotely control a limited number of functions of the electronic device. The problem with this small remote control, however, is that its usefulness is limited only to those functions of the electronic device which it can remotely control. Thus, for example, a user wishing to control the functions of brightness and CHANNEL UP/DOWN of a television would not be able to use the small remote control device described above because that device is not able to remotely control the brightness function. Instead, the user is forced again to resort to the larger, more complicated remote controller.
In response to the limitations discussed above, a new line of remote control transmitters have been developed which are called "learning" remote controller and "universal" remote controller. Each of these two types of remote controllers operates by a different principle, and each has its own set of limitations. The "universal" remote controller is preprogrammed with all the remote codes of the various major manufacturers of electronic devices. These remote control codes are typically stored in some sort of ROM within the remote control device. To use this "universal" remote controller, the user initially inputs into the remote controller a code which represents the manufacturer of that specific electronic device to be controlled. Once the universal remote controller has been initialized, it is then able to remotely control a number of independent electronic devices each produced by a different manufacturer. For example, the user owns a television manufactured by Company A and a VCR manufactured by Company B. Using the universal remote controller, the user is then able to remotely control the television by entering in, via the key pad of the remote controller, a code which represents electronic devices manufactured by Company A. Once initialized in this manner, the universal remote controller produces remote control signals which are equivalent in format to those remote control signals produced by remote controllers manufactured by Company A. When the user subsequently desires to control the VCR manufactured by Company B, he enters the code corresponding to Company B into the universal remote controller, whereupon the universal remote controller functions as a remote controller manufactured by Company B, thus enabling the user the remotely control the VCR.
One problem associated with the universal remote controller is that it only contains a finite number of codes representing a finite number of manufacturers. If a user owns an electronic device not within the list of those manufacturers, the user is out of luck and the universal remote controller cannot be initialized to remotely control that particular electronic device.
The other type of remote control device able to remotely control a number of electronic devices each produced by a different manufacturer is the "learning" remote controller. The learning remote controller operates on a different principle than that of the universal remote controller in that the learning remote controller is able to be programmed to "learn" a number of control signals from remote control devices produced by different manufacturers. Once the learning remote controller has been programmed in this manner, it is then able to remotely control a number of electronic devices each produced by a different manufacturer by reproducing the various control signals it has "learned". For example, user owns a TV manufactured by Company A and a VCR manufactured by Company B. Each electronic device comes with its own remote manufactured by that respective company. To use the learning remote controller, the user must first program the learning remote controller to learn the various remote control signals of the remote control devices manufactured by companies A and B respectively. To accomplish this, the learning remote controller is placed into a learning mode and physically placed close to one of the remote control devices manufactured by companies A or B such that a control signal from the manufacturer's remote can be detected by the receiving diodes of the learning remote controller. Various keys on the manufacturers remote are then depressed sending a signal to the learning remote controller. This signal, being received by the learning remote controller, is assigned to a particular key on the learning remote controller keypad and stored in a compressed format within the memory of the learning remote controller. This process is then repeated using the remote control device from the other manufacturer (Company B). After the programming of the learning remote controller has been accomplished, the learning remote controller is then placed into a user mode and is used as an ordinary remote control device to remotely control both the TV and the VCR.
The learning remote control device, however, is not without its problems. One such problem is that the learning remote controller has a limited memory capacity, and therefore can only "learn" a finite number (about 40) remote control signals. Another limitation is that an unprogrammed learning remote controller is useless without the original manufacturers remote control to program the learning remote controller. Therefore, if the manufacturers remote control device for the TV is lost, the learning remote controller cannot be used to remotely control the TV. In addition, the learning remote controller is difficult to program since there is very little feedback information to the user. Lastly, typical learning remote controllers can be very expensive.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to overcome the various problems and limitations of remote control transmitters herein described above.